New Delhi: Porsche has filed a new patent for a transmission gear selector that can operate like a manual or an automatic, depending on what the driver prefers. The carmaker filed for the patent back in August 2024 with the German Patent and Trademark Office, but it wasn’t published until the start of March.
The patent, which was first discovered by CarBuzz, describes a shift-by-wire gear selector that can operate like a standard automatic. The selector can move forward and backwards, cycling through drive, neutral and reverse. The selector also gets an H-pattern option that allows the driver to move the shifter left and right, as well as forward and backwards.
The driver can then select the desired gear, as there would be a mechanical manual gearbox.
How is Porsche’s patented gear supposed to work?
Sensors track the lever’s movements, with springs and electric motors recreating the feeling of gears being shifted manually. It would allow Porsche to provide a manual-type experience irrespective of the transmission underneath, taking the whole standard torque-converter automatic and a dual-clutch out of the equation in terms of gear shifting.
Even though it is quite an attractive proposition, and feels similar to Koenigsegg’s quite intelligent “Light Speed Transmission”, it remains a patent. That does mean there’s a chance this technology actually might never reach us. Of course, the demand for manual transmission is falling, but there still remain enthusiasts for it. It lets Porsche retain the manual experience no matter what transmission the car might carry.